Top Headlines for October 01, 2017

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Former football legend O.J. Simpson became a free man again Sunday after serving nine years for a botched hotel-room heist in Las Vegas that brought the conviction and prison time he avoided in the killings of his ex-wife and her friend after his 1995 acquittal in the "trial of the century" in Los Angeles….

SANT JULIA DE RAMIS, Spain (AP) — Spanish riot police smashed their way into polling stations to try to halt a disputed independence referendum on Sunday and fired rubber projectiles at protesters outside a Barcelona polling station. Several people were wounded in the confrontation….

BRANCHBURG, N.J. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Saturday lashed out at the mayor of San Juan and other officials in storm-ravaged Puerto Rico, contemptuous of their claims of a laggard U.S. response to the natural disaster that has imperiled the island's future….

NEW YORK (AP) — The new season of "Saturday Night Live" wasted no time getting topical – or mocking Donald Trump – with an opening sketch that featured Alec Baldwin skewering the president for his response to the hurricane that devastated Puerto Rico, threatening Attorney General Jeff Sessions' job and mentioning his stand-off with the NFL….

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Saturday night stoked the controversy over his call for punitive action against NFL players who take a knee or otherwise protest during the national anthem, tweeting anew that they should remain standing out of respect for the nation and its flag….

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Matt Dana was known around the Adirondack Mountain town where he grew up as a promising young police sergeant who worked hard to root out narcotics dealers. So it came as a shock to friends and co-workers when he died suddenly this summer and an autopsy attributed it to an overdose….

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Monty Hall, the genial TV game show host whose long-running "Let's Make a Deal" traded on love of money and merchandise and the mystery of which door had the car behind it, has died. He was 96….